When I showed my friend my Kindle, he said he wouldn’t ever read something on a Kindle because he found the “e-ink” display ugly, and he found his tablet a far better choice. I said the Kindle causes less eye strain - but he didn’t agree and we left it at that.
But I’ve been wondering about it. Is “eye strain” a subjective perception or the screen brightness or radiation influences / causes it? Is the Kindle less “radiative” than the typical tablet or phone? I’ve noticed that even with the batteries completely drained, the Kindle can hold an image on the screen. Apart from how that is possible, I think it indicates that the screen does not emit radiation in the manner phones and tablets do.
I don’t know that it’s subjective, but I don’t know which causes less eyestrain.
I find, especially at the end of the workday, my eyes are tired (I work on computers all day). For that reason, my Kindle books are set to the off-white/light beige option. The bright contrast isn’t great.
Just mentioned all this to the eye doctor yesterday. He told me to use moisturizing drops in my eyes.
I read books and PDFs on my Kobo reader and two tablets. On the tablets I read PDFs and books in the Kindle app. On the Kobo I just read epubs, reading PDFs is torture. I convert all my Kindle books to epub so that I can read them on the Kobo because it is much easier on the eyes. If I can avoid using a tablet for reading I do.
I still read books printed on paper, having resisted the electronic versions. Thus I don’t really understand the OPs question but from what I’ve read on the net, there is a substantial difference between the “paper white” screens and the lcd screens. The latter are harder to view.
The main problem I have with (backlit) LCD is in having the light be too bright. I would think that, if you can dim it enough and still read it, it would be fine.
I vastly prefer the Kindle. I would love a tablet that could somehow do both. I understand e-ink and tablet screens are different but it seems like they’d rather just have us buy two devices than invent something. I understand that, but I think if they figured something out they’d make a lot of money too!
I use UCBrowser on my tablets which has a night mode. This mode dims the screen greatly, and uses a dark background to further decrease the light emitted by the screen… and still I do not think it is comparable in comfort to my Kindle. Maybe it is to some extent psychological: I grew up around CRT monitors and bulky TV sets and have had their eye-stressing properties relentlessly drummed into my impressionable brain.
IMHO, there’s absolutely no comparison between a Kindle Paperwhite and any sort of LCD display. One is like reading from paper and the other is not. I do wish they’d do something about the form factor, though. It’s so think it actually sort of cuts into my finger joints and it’s kind of awkward to hold and turn pages on while I’m in bed. I just want one with fatter sides and a button on the back to turn the page.
Put it in a case? I never have any electronics that don’t have some kind of protective case. I drop everything. I’d drop my own head if it was possible.
I still have an old Kindle but I have it in a “book” style case which folds over. I love it.
The problem with Kindle cases is that I can’t see any of them before I buy them. So I’d basically be guessing which ones made the thing easier to hold.
If you have a Kindle Paperwhite,I really like this case. It powers on when the case is open and the back strap is perfect when reading in bed or on the go.
I can’t speak for the more modern, Tablet type Kindles, but my old school etch-a-sketch type Kindle is definitely easier on the eyes, and it works in sunlight.
I agree with this, except the part about wanting a fatter kindle. My Paperwhite 1st gen is just about perfect. I gave away my tablet because I never used it but my Paperwhite is where I do my serious reading.
However, I will read on my iPhone, if that’s all I’ve got handy. It’s got the main advantages of the Kindle: my giant library and the adjustable font size. It’s ok, but it’s noticeably less comfortable for me.
That said, it doesn’t surprise me that different people have different ideas about something as personal as eyestrain.
I have both. I far prefer my Kindle for reading because the backlight is too strong on the iPad. Toning down the backlight helps, but it still harder on my eyes. Turning the page is much easier on the Kindle, too. And it’s very difficult to read outdoors with the iPad. Not so hard on the Kindle.
However, just about everything else is easier on the iPad. Because my Kindle is an older version, it doesn’t have a light, so I have to use a book light for night reading, which is a minor pain, especially when travelling.
For instance, in one of my books on King Henry VIII, there’s a Plantagenet and Tudor geneology chart that I like to refer to. Getting to it on the iPad is much easier than the Kindle. And the quality of the photos are better on the iPad.
That’s a good point, actually. My paperwhite doesn’t do pictures well. That said, I got a personal response from George Takei when I mentioned it on his Facebook page (in the context of his then-new book, which had a lot of images in it.) So that was awesome.
It’s a fact that an LCD screen, like that of a tablet, phone, or computer monitor, works by emitting light towards the viewer’s eyes, while an e-ink screen does not (even if it’s frontlit, like the Kindle Paperwhite). I’ve heard different people say different things about how much, if at all, of a difference this makes in eyestrain.
In this 5-minute video that I ran across on “How E-ink Works,” they show the new YataPhone which has two separate screens: one LCD, one e-ink. At this point, it’s probably at least as expensive as just buying two devices, though.
Aside from quirks like polarization (and LCD screens mostly emit polarized, anyway), I don’t see how it could matter what path a photon took before it hit your eyes. I would expect any real issue would have to come from additional light being added to the signal, like excessive brightness or glare, which are both relatively controllable attributes.
Subjectively speaking, I do a lot of reading on both a high-resolution tablet and a modern Kindle, and the tablet’s larger screen size makes way more of a difference to me than any other attribute of the screen itself, even when reading for a long time.
